Billy Crystal, left, as Artie who realizes his grandsons, Kyle Harrison Breitkopf, center, as Barker and Joshua Rush as Turner have have too much sugar in a scene from film 'Parental Guidance.'

Written by

Michael Rechtshaffen
| The Hollywood Reporter

The schmaltz is piled on thick, and if the comedy were any broader it would require an IMAX screen, but still there's something touching about how hard Billy Crystal and Bette Midler hustle to peddle the threadbare material that makes Parental Guidance a perfectly tolerable, if uninspired, moviegoing experience.

As "the other grandparents" who are given a golden opportunity to bond with their seldom-seen grandchildren, Billy and Bette work double-time, well aware that it's not just the juvenile characters they have to entertain, but also the paying audiences who could count on both of ...